After the fall of the Soviet Union,
President Bush signed a limited testing moratorium to take effect Oct. 1, 1992,
for nine months. President Clinton continued the moratorium - the country's last
test was in September 1992 - then signed the comprehensive global treaty in
1996. The treaty, a plank in the 1992 Democratic Party platform, went to the
Senate for ratification in 1997. It languished in the Senate until Majority
Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., unexpectedly scheduled a full Senate vote for Oct.
12.

PRO
2

Among pro-test-ban countries,
the thinking is that if the United States ratifies the treaty, Russia
and China will follow, then India and Pakistan will fall into line, and
North Korea can be ostracized until it accedes to international norms.

PRO
3

Supporters say the treaty is
a powerful deterrent to small states which might want to develop nuclear
weapons. It provides for an international seismic monitoring network and
would give the international community a strong basis for action against
a country found to have tested.

CON 4

Republicans say the treaty is flawed,
in part because it would not prevent countries such as North Korea, Iraq and
Iran from testing. ``We think it would put us in a weakened position
internationally,'' Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Friday.
``But since there have been all these calls and demands for a vote, we have
offered to vote.''

PRO
5

After two years of inaction
and without any hearings on the treaty, Senate GOP leaders abruptly
decided Thursday to hold a vote Oct. 12. ``This is not what the Founding
Fathers meant by advise and consent,'' Sandy Berger, the national
security adviser, said in an interview Saturday. ``This is hit and
run.'' The administration and its allies accused Republicans of rushing
the vote in hopes of defeating the treaty. Democrats fear they are about
15 votes short of the 67 needed to ratify the agreement. Traditionally,
major treaties are debated at length in committee hearings before coming
to a vote in the Senate.

PRO
6

Defense Secretary William
Cohen and Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, will
present the administration's case. ``It's a verifiable treaty,'' Cohen
said, adding that the United States has the technology to ensure nuclear
tests are not conducted.

CON 6.1

The Washington Post quoted
unidentified senior officials as saying the Central Intelligence Agency has
concluded in a new assessment of its capabilities that it cannot monitor
low-level nuclear tests in Russia precisely enough to ensure compliance with the
treaty.

PRO
6.1

White House Chief of Staff John
Podesta said the treaty will help clear up such uncertainties by permitting 300
additional testing stations around the world and by providing for on-site
inspections. ``So that if there are questions about whether a country is
testing, we can bring the weight of the international community to bear to have
on-site inspections,'' he said. ``This is really an argument for the treaty.''

PRO 7

President Bush unilaterally stopped nuclear
testing in 1992 and the United States relies on supercomputer simulations to test the nuclear
arsenal. We don't need tests. Proliferators do and the longer we go without the
CTBT fully enforced, the greater the risk that proliferators will get what they
want.'

PRO 8

John Holum, the administration's top
arms-control official, said the treaty was of vital importance because, once it
takes effect, it will be ``very difficult for new countries to develop nuclear
weapons.''

CON 9

Conservatives contend the pact -
which also has not been ratified yet by Russia or China could threaten the U.S.
ability to modernize its arsenal if necessary.

PRO 10

Supporters argue the United States
already has a vast superiority in nuclear weapons, thanks to more than 1,000
nuclear tests during the Cold War, and the test ban treaty would lock in that
advantage.

FACT
11

The treaty has been signed by more
than 150 countries, but cannot go into force unless 44 nuclear-capable
countries, including the United States, ratify it. The 44 nations, each possessing
various degrees of nuclear capability, that must ratify the Comprehensive Test
Ban Treaty for it to take effect:

The three nations among the 44 that
have neither signed nor ratified the treaty:

India, Pakistan, North Korea.

FACT
12 10-13-99

Ratification of the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) failed in the Senate by a vote of 48 to 51 with one
abstention. The Senate's Republican majority overwhelmingly opposed the pact.

FACT
13

Republican presidential candidate
George W. Bush has condemned the treaty, as have Elizabeth Dole and the three
Senate Republicans who are presidential hopefuls: John McCain, R-Ariz.; Orrin
Hatch, R-Utah; and Bob Smith, Ind-N.H.

PRO 14

But what if the United States needed
to resume nuclear testing in 10 or 13 years? Test ban opponents suggest that
this small risk means we should opt out of the treaty now. We disagree. While it
is difficult to conceive of future security threats likely to require nuclear
testing as the most appropriate response, if such a serious threat did emerge
the United States could withdraw from the treaty. The treaty would permit
withdrawal with six months’ notice.